8

"I'm sure that there's something to be gleaned from his lectures. It must be… in a code of some sort! If you can just figure out what the cipher is, then all will be revealed and his position on the teaching staff will make sense." Weiss tried to defend Professor Port, teams RWBY and JNPR having just been released from yet another riveting class with the man.

"And have you figured out this supposed cipher?" Blake questioned the girl, an eyebrow raised.

"W-well, no, but… if that's not the case, then why is he even here?! It's the only thing that makes sense! Or are you suggesting that the school has subjected us to his lectures as nothing more than a form of torture?" The white haired girl crossed her arms, daring anyone present to contradict her.

There is no code. You guys can sleep in his class with no repercussions if you feel like it. I have no idea why he's employed here, except maybe as a joke of some sort.

"I hate to burst your bubble, Weiss, but Second says that he recommends sleeping through Port's class."

That is not what I said, but more power to you if it means us being out of it for that snooze fest. And you actually opposed Weiss on something! Nothing of importance, I guess, but it's still progress. Love to see it!

A flurry of emotion crossed the Schnee's face before she bowed her head in defeat. "Did I really come all the way here from Atlas for this…?"

"Of course not, Weiss! You came all the way from Atlas to be part of the super awesome team RWBY, huntresses extraordinaire!" Ruby was all smiles as she said it, hugging her partner from behind.

"Get off me, you dolt!"

"But if I get off of you, how am I supposed to let you know how great it is that you came to Beacon?"

"Use your words like a civilized person! What is wrong with you?!" The two descended into nonsensical bickering as the rest watched on.

But the two teams weren't the only ones who had been in Port's class. Others were walking across campus as well, and Jaune was quick to notice Cardin, subtly positioning himself so that his team was between him and his totally not-bully.

Come on man, what are you doing? You just have to show him what's what! He's just a punk.

"Jaune? Is something wrong?" Pyrrha had apparently noticed as well, even if the rest of them were wrapped up in the argument between Ruby and Weiss.

"Oh, it's nothing…" Jaune tried to play it off, but a talented actor he was not.

Just tell her that Cardin's giving you a hard time! You're teammates, partners, friends! She was totally cool with you having gotten your position here through illegitimate means, how badly do you think she's gonna take this? You can trust her. Well, ideally you'd trust all of RWBY and JNPR, but Pyrrha is a good start.

"Is Second chewing you out for lying to me?" The redhead questioned.

"What? How could you tell?" his eyes went wide with shock.

"Jaune, you're a terrible liar and whenever you listen to him you get this… faraway look in your eyes. It's kind of obvious."

"I really need to work on that…" Jaune quietly distanced the two of them from the rest of the group, slowing down just a bit. "I… kind of had a run in with Cardin recently, and now Second thinks I'm being bullied or something."

"Cardin? I could see that, with the way he treats people…" A frown formed on her face. "I've not really had any experiences with bullying myself… has Second suggested anything?"

"He um… said I should tell him to get bent, and then kick his teeth in."

And I stand by that. Cardin's the type of guy that could use a good beat down, knock some sense into him or something. Certainly a much quicker resolution than what would normally happen.

Pyrrha's eyebrows quickly raised. "Oh. I wasn't expecting such a… violent response. Does he have any other suggestions?"

Well? Do you? Jaune thought to Second, what exactly do you mean by "what would normally happen?"

You remember that conversation in the cafeteria a while back, about the branching timelines and whatnot? Well, I'm referring to a timeline in which you never got me as your semblance. In that timeline, Cardin relentlessly bullies you for… weeks I think? And it only got worse after he overheard you confessing your forged transcripts to Pyrrha, which I avoided by forcing you to do it earlier and at a different time when he couldn't eavesdrop, thank you very much. The bullying doesn't get resolved until your upcoming trip to Forever Fall, in which you finally step up to him when he's going to mess with Pyrrha and then save him from an Ursa. I guess you like, earn his respect or something? But it takes a whole lot more of you getting bullied to reach that point, and I don't see the sense in letting that happen when you could just kick his teeth in right now. Yang would totally help you if you jumped him right this second!

Jaune mulled over that explanation for a moment before finally replying to Pyrrha. "I don't think he's going to be of much help for this one, unless I decide to go with the Yang style of conflict resolution…"

No, the Yang style of conflict resolution is to start a fight in a bar because one guy pissed you off, trash the whole place and everyone in it, and then act like you were in the right. I'm proposing that you fight a single guy. With your friends, but whatever.

Pyrrha looked over to the bully in question. "It is Cardin we're talking about… perhaps it's deserved."

"Pyrrha I'm not going to start a brawl just to get him to leave me alone! Think of all the detention with Goodwitch…" A shiver went down both of their spines at the thought.

A sacrifice worth making if it gets this punk to straighten out.

"Well then… maybe during a spar? You probably have one coming up soon in combat class, or you could even request it."

"You think that I could beat him in a spar?" He looked at her incredulously.

"I don't see why not. His form isn't very impressive for someone who actually had training before Beacon. You're learning at a good pace. I don't think that it's a sure thing that you will win, but you have decent odds by my evaluation, so it's worth a shot."

"I guess you really think I could do it…"

"And if you don't manage it, then we all go kick his teeth in."

"Pyrrha, no!"

Pyrrha, yes!

"Qrow, you of all people know just how important secrecy is regarding these matters." Ozpin found that once again, Second Thoughts' decision when he first manifested was causing headaches.

"I know that keeping this sort of thing on a need to know basis is your go to, yeah, but I'm kind of wondering when you decide that something should be shared. I've been doing work for you for what, a bit more than half of my life now? I guess I kind of assumed that at some point over those years you'd maybe think 'wow, that Qrow guy is pretty reliable, semblance excluded. Maybe losing his team to this garbage means he's entitled to know the full truth' or something of that nature."

"And you do know the truth. I do trust you Qrow."

"Oh really now, is that so?" Oobleck interjected. "So if we were to ask Second Thoughts about this matter, he would not have any more details to give us? Now that I think about it, perhaps that is the true reason you're so worried about that semblance. Afraid that he'll go revealing your lies, Ozpin?"

"You would trust a voice in the head of one of our students over me? It has been in existence for a tiny blip of time, while I've known the two of you for years!" Ozpin's voice was raised, losing his cool.

"I cannot say that I would take his word as fact, that would be foolhardy. But if Second were to lead us to hard evidence? What then? Am I meant to ignore the evidence in front of my eyes because good ol' Ozpin has told me to trust him and then lied to me by omission?" Oobleck was glaring daggers at the man.

"Just get it over with Oz." Qrow growled. "Rip off the band-aid. But I swear, if you kept something from us that could have saved Summer I'll-"

"Don't. You. Dare." Ozpin had suddenly stood from his seat. "I can forgive many things, but accusing me of… I cannot forgive that."

The room was silent for a beat.

"I'm sorry Oz, that was… that was too far… I just got heated and even the possibility that… I got emotional. My bad."

Oobleck dialed back his aggressiveness, but having not been close to the woman in question, he was not quelled by her being brought up. "That does not change the problem. If this isn't resolved there are going to be trust issues between us all. Severe trust issues."

Ozpin breathed in deeply, steadying himself. "I had hoped it would not come to this… but there is one way that I can satisfy you. Unfortunately it will require us to hunt down the Spring Maiden."

"And how exactly is this Spring Maiden meant to confirm for us that you have not kept any more important secrets?"

"By retrieving the Relic of Knowledge."

"Oh no, however will I defeat the boy wonder and his imaginary friend!" Cardin jeered as he and Jaune made their way up onto the arena.

Goodwitch rolled her eyes, but said nothing about the boy's childish remarks. "The spar will end when either of your auras enter the red or when one of you surrenders. You may begin."

Cardin was on him immediately. Swinging his mace in an arch that seemed aimed to shatter Jaune's skull, the boy didn't move nearly as fast as Pyrrha did during training. Jaune side-stepped out of the way, placing his shield between them as he retaliated with a swipe of his own, his sword cutting through the air before scraping off of Cardin's arm.

Huh. Maybe you do stand a chance. Getting your ass kicked by Pyrrha all the time is paying off even sooner than I'd hoped.

A quick glance at the display showed just how little damage that blow had done to Cardin, and the hope bubbling up inside of Jaune immediately died. This was immediately followed up by taking a mace to the gut, as Cardin had swung at him a second time while he was distracted. The poor boy went tumbling onto his ass, but quickly found his way back onto his feet, the maneuver ingrained into his muscle memory after having been shown no mercy when it was Nora's turn to train him.

At least his mace didn't hurt as much as Magnhild?

You're not helping!

Another swing of the mace, but this one was caught by Jaune's shield, deflected off to the side as he stabbed at a gap in his opponent's armor. Cardin grunted, stepping back and preparing to take another crack at Jaune's skull. Jaune side-stepped the attack once more, punishing the overreach with another swipe of his sword before backing away.

Now would be a great time for tips on how to beat him, or some awful secret that would freak him out, or, you know, anything useful at all?! Jaune pleaded with his semblance.

If I had something I would have told you! This guy is a chump and not worth your time, I don't have any information on unimportant people like him. I think our knowledge of him might be about even. What you're doing so far seems to be working though! He's a big dude with a big weapon, he'll never be as fast as your teammates and you can occasionally dodge their strikes!

As if on cue, Jaune side-stepped yet another swing of the mace, punishing it with a slice at his opponent's neck. Cardin grunted in pain, shouting out "Would you stop dancing around already?!"

"You know, I'm pretty sure that if my opponent wants me to not do something, that means I should just do more of it." Jaune did just that, creating even more space between them, moving around the arena and forcing Cardin to follow, the bulkier boy being forced to dance to his tune, getting more frustrated by the second.

"You won't even fight me now? You're just going to run away the whole time? You're a coward!"

"I think you mean he's winning! What, is someone upset that they're gonna lose to vomit boy?" Yang shouted out from the stands. Both of the fighters quickly glanced at their aura displays, finding that her words were true. While Cardin's blows did far more damage at once, he had barely touched Jaune, while the opposite was true for the reverse. It seemed that Cardin's seeming inability to dodge meant that Jaune's weak hits were adding up.

Did she really have to call you vomit boy though? That's just rude at this point, it was only on that first day!

It seemed that Cardin had had enough of this, charging at Jaune like a bull. Jaune adjusted his footing, preparing to dodge out of the way of his swing. Cardin pulled his hand back, looking ready to break Jaune's bones.

Is this moron really gonna try the same thing again? It hasn't worked so far, I don- shit! That's a feint!

Jaune wasn't able to correct in time, sent flying back and tumbling on the ground as he moaned in pain. His aura would protect him from any real damage, but that didn't stop a hit like that from hurting like hell.

I think you might be screwed. Told you that you should've kicked his teeth in with Yang.

I'm not done yet. Any ideas? Any at all?

Goodwitch would catch Pyrrha helping you cheat. Tiring him out sort of worked, but that's done with how worn out you are. Can't have Neo pretend to be you-

Who?

-you're not strong enough for any of those ideas… hmmm. Well, I've got one idea I guess. It'll either work or end very painfully for you.

I've got nothing else, so we might as well.

Jaune's friends watched the fight with anticipation obvious on their faces.

"I really thought he could do it…" Pyrrha remarked.

"He wasn't doing too bad for a while there, a definite improvement, impressive even given how little time we've been training him, but it was probably a bit much to expect that he would be able to defeat Cardin with that. Cardin may be… well, Cardin, but he does seem to have a lot more training than Jaune does." Ren tried to console Jaune's partner.

"What does he think he's doing? That's not kicking his teeth in!" Nora glowered at her leader as he dropped his fighting stance, looking much more casual than he should in the ring.

"Is he about to surrender?" Blake suggested.

They watched as Cardin ran at him, a cocky smirk on his face, seeming like he was about to get one last hit on an opponent that was done already. They watched as that mace swung through the air one last time, looking like it was about to crush Jaune's ribcage from the side. As Jaune dropped low to the ground, collapsing his shield, before expanding it once more in between Cardin's legs. A high pitched squeal was heard as the boy's legs were forced to make room for the metal, stretching far, far beyond what they were used to. The mace flew out of his hand, and Jaune scrambled out of his way as Cardin went down, his hands shooting to his groin and his face scrunched up in pain.

"It looks like Cardin needs to work on his flexibility if he can't handle the splits." Yang had a smirk on her face.

The match was called, and Cardin crawled off the stage. Jaune opted to walk, picking up Crocea Mors on his way back to the crowd, an awestruck smile on his face.

"I can't believe I actually won that! Second, what the hell kind of idea was that?!"

If your shield can get you stuck in a doorway, it can spread a man's legs. One look at Cardin is all you need to know he's not very flexible.

"Stuck in a doorway? I've never been stuck in a doorway."

Correct. You're welcome for that, by the way.

Their conversation was interrupted by congratulations from his friends.

"I believed in you the whole time, fearless leader!" Nora exclaimed with a wide smile and a pat on the back that might have been harder than some of his hits against Cardin.

"I don't get it, why did Cardin give up after that? It was just the splits." Ruby questioned the group.

"I'll explain it when you're older." Yang pushed her sister down with an elbow on top of her head.

"Great job, Jaune." Pyrrha's eyes were filled with joy. A bit quieter, so that the others wouldn't hear, "I'd like to see him give you a hard time without phantom pain from that."

I'm getting phantom pain, and I only watched it…

"And how did you come up with that move, Jaune?" Ren asked, clearly still cringing from watching that display.

"I can't take credit for that one, it was Second's idea."

"Second helped you out then? He wasn't a hindrance during the fight?"

"No… he was good. We were good."

Perhaps, in a roundabout way, Second Thoughts could be considered a combat semblance after all.

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